Another weekly news round-up from the world of poker including another successful MILLIONS event for partypoker, two slam dunks for the World Poker Tour, and poker and politics get a little too comfortable for some people’s liking.

There was a time when partypoker live events were like a shivering wet mongrel, but today they are walking around town with all the elegance and strength of a Tibetan Mastiff, and it’s all thanks to the MILLIONS brand.

The event that has non-affiliated poker players airing their nostalgic feelings on twitter like the shake of your grandma’s snow globe is currently entertaining folk in the Dominican Republic, and there have been some big winners.

The Norwegian online star, Preben Stokkan, topped a field of 103 entrants on his way to banking the $275,000 first prize in the $10,300 High Roller. Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen continued his scintillating 2017 form with victory in the $25,500 Super High Roller, beating 43-entrants to win the $400,000 first prize. And Rainer Kempe proved he can reach the zenith of a smaller buy-in live tournament when he hit 812 entrants for six to take the $200,000 first prize in the $1,100 buy-in MILLIONS Open.

How does it feels when you are all-in for a World Series of Poker bracelet and a minute later are ushered aside so people can see the winner? That’s one of the many questions we asked Allen Kessler in this week’s edition of Poker Routines.

Allen Kessler is Joey Knish, the consummate live grinder, doing what he needs to do to make ‘it’ work, like a tractor, stuck in low gear, patiently trundling from tournament to tournament.

He has been around as long as the deck of cards. Like a sturdy piece of meat marinating in a slow cooker, some people find him palatable, others not. He has a voice. He shares it. His very livelihood depends on it.

Kessler’s first cash came in the 2001 World Series of Poker (WSOP) when he finished 16th in a $5,150 Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight or Better event that saw Scotty Nguyen beat Phil Hellmuth Jr., heads-up to take the bracelet.

Lee Davy sits down with the graduate student, Alex Thomas, to talk about his new poker app: Poker Town, an app designed to help live poker lovers find the closest and best games in town.

Pseudo Echo wanted to take us to Funky Town. And I went, maybe a few too many times. Alex Thomas doesn’t have time for any of that old nonsense. The graduate student from Albany, New York, is more interested in taking us to Poker Town.

Poker Town is an app that connects live poker players so they can share the best games in town.

Let’s find out why Thomas decided to expend his energy in this field rather than growing honeysuckle, breeding Chow-Chows, or getting lost in the maze of Netflix.

Lee Davy sits down with the Founder and CEO of India’s Poker Sport’s League, Pranav Bagai, to learn more about India’s poker ecosystem, and what role the PSL has to play in the event.

Poker booms.

The Chris Moneymaker poker boom is becoming a line of old poetry etched into a piece of paper that looks like someone has spilt Worcestershire Sauce onto it.

Poker booms.

British Columbia’s self-regulated gambling monopoly is giving itself new powers to curb rampant money laundering at the land-based casinos it was already supposed to be regulating.

On Thursday, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) announced that it was updating its operational services agreement (OSA) for casino and community gaming services. Among other things, the new 20-year OSA aims to strengthen BCLC’s “oversight in the areas of compliance and security including escalation mechanisms and progressive discipline measures.”

BCLC came in for a torrent of criticism a couple months back, following a change in provincial leadership that uncovered a year-old report that had been buried by the former Liberal government.

The report contained details of stupendous indifference to anti-money laundering practices at BC casinos, particularly the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, where Asian VIPs with questionable funding sources were able to buy millions of dollars in casino chips with gym bags full of 20-dollar bills.

Asian casino operator Donaco International says it’s once again delaying the oft-delayed launch of its online gambling operations in Cambodia

On Thursday, the Australian-listed Donaco held its annual general meeting in Sydney, at which managing director Joey Lim revealed that “the initial launch of our online gaming business has been slightly delayed, and is now also expected in December.”

For the record, it’s been over a year since Donaco first revealed that it had been issued a Cambodian online gambling license. The product was supposed to launch in September, and then October, and then Lim told a Malaysian newspaper that the launch could take another “six to seven months,” only to refute that statement a week later and repeat the previous October target.

Whether or not Donaco makes its new December launch date remains unknown. What we do know is that the online operation will be run out of Star Vegas, Donaco’s flagship property in Cambodia, and that it will consist of “12 online gaming tables, to be operated by third party junkets.” At least, that’s what they told us in September.

Asia’s leading casino junket operator is winning VIP gamblers’ hearts and minds with its unorthodox player rewards program.

The Suncity Group junket, considered the biggest gaming promoter currently steering high-rollers to casino VIP rooms in Macau, Manila and beyond, claims to have dramatically boosted betting volume this year through a customer incentive program more commonly associated with credit cards or airlines.

Suncity chairman Alvin Chau told Bloomberg that the company’s rewards program, which allows VIP gamblers to turn their betting volume into points that can be redeemed for real-world luxury items, has helped boost betting volume by 30% this year and Chau expects a further 20% boost in 2018.

Chau (pictured) estimates that Suncity now controls over 40% of Macau’s junket market, and its Macau VIP gaming rooms are reportedly handling total bets of over HKD 150b (US $19.2b) per month.

The controversy over fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) has spread to Northern Ireland, where a bookmaker has been arrested for suspected violations of local gambling law.

This week, BBC Spotlight reported that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) had arrested an unidentified bookmaker following an investigation into whether the FOBTs in local betting shops were operating in violation of local laws.

The PSNI has reportedly urged the Public Prosecution Service to prosecute the bookie on two counts: charging a player of a gaming machine an amount in excess of that permitted, and permitting a player of a gaming machine to receive excess winnings.

Northern Ireland may be part of the UK but gambling is one of the responsibilities ‘devolved’ to local authority, and Northern Ireland hasn’t updated its gambling laws since 1985. Under that 1985 law, the maximum stake on gaming machines is capped at 30p, while maximum payouts are capped at £8.

Singapore’s casino gamblers appear to be losing interest in the city-state’s two integrated resorts, if the latest stats on casino entry levies are any barometer.

As a curb against problem gambling, Singapore requires local residents to pay a daily levy of S$100 (US $75) or annual levy of S$2k in order to access the casinos’ gaming floors. The latest annual report issued by the Singapore Tote Board shows total casino entry levies of S$134m in the 12 months ending March 31, 2017.

The fiscal 2016-17 entry levy total is down from S$145m in the previous fiscal year, and well off the S$170m recorded in the 2012-13 report. In fact, the 2017 entry fee total is the lowest since the two integrated resorts – Las Vegas Sands’ Marina Bay Sands and Genting’s Resorts World Sentosa – opened their doors in 2010.

The fact that the entry fee total has consistently declined in each of the last five annual reports strongly suggests that the novelty of casino gambling has worn off, at least with local residents. The fact that problem gamblers’ families can apply to have their relatives banned from entering casinos may also play a role.